1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a document processing apparatus capable of, for example, merging or inserting an external structured document into a structured document while maintaining the structure of the external structured document, and a control method thereof.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, a document printing system has been proposed that stores management information, including document file names, storage locations and selected pages, in settings files to collectively manage document files, but does not save document file data (see, for example, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2000-357074). This system references the settings files each time it prints a document file, and thus it is possible to obtain printed products in which document file updates are reflected.
There is also a technique in which when merging the print data of documents, captured documents are converted into intermediate data (e.g., PDF data) and merged into a single file, so that the preview and the merged document can be edited (see, for example, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2002-63000). With this configuration, documents can be treated as components, and the components can be dispersed side by side.
However, according to Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2000-357074, it is not possible to merge and edit documents.
Also, according to Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2002-63000, it is possible to merge documents, but it is not possible to distinguish a document that was independent before being merged into merged document data. Accordingly, when, for example, after an external document has been merged into an original document, a portion corresponding to the external document is edited, it is not possible to reflect the edits in the original external document.